Sunday, July 17, 2011

This new personal piece had been mulling around in my head for a while as it was partially brought on by an incredible trip up to Bear Mountain last year. It was only a short day trip, but it gave a much needed refrain from Brooklyn and reintroduced me to open space. (Sadly, the roll of film I shot that day got screwed up)Anyway, I spent a lot of time fooling around with the design of the character as well as the design and placement of her tattoos. Below are 3 out of about 15 or so quick thumbnails I was sporadically working on between other work.When I landed on a look for the character and a composition, I had my friend and musical pal Ari pose for some reference photos in the park.The penciling and inking both went fairly fast. I gave myself a nice little challenge in reseraching the the tattoos and trying to give her a good mix of more old-fashioned Sailor Jerry-esque tattoos along with a more modern Suicide Girls style chest piece and even a koi fish piece.When it came to the coloring, I found I had to experiment with different blending modes for the tattoos in order to make them look genuinely embedded in the girl's skin and stay away from bright, saturated colors that could make them look like a temporary tattoos simply sitting on top of the skin.Later along in the process, I added small scrapes to the elbows and knees to rough her up a bit and act as a complement to the greens all around her. I also added leaves falling around her, just shaken off of the branch she's grabbing.--CKL--

This is a spot I did for last week's New York Observer about the Bridgehampton Biennial, which is being thrown in the backyard of a farmhouse to poke fun of the other fancy art fairs in the Hamptons. Read the article here.Thanks to awesome AD Ivylise Simones.